At last, we have developed our first film! After much bargaining, begging and borrowing, my partner Sarah and I have finally amassed enough equipment to construct our very first, (makeshift-but-useable), darkroom and having recently moved into a new apartment, we actually have a relatively defined space in which to do so.
I’m not going to talk too much in these posts to begin with, as we’re just starting out and have very little knowledge on the subject, but I would certainly welcome any pointers, critique etc…, so don’t feel shy and comment away!
A few initial observations and informations:
The film is scratched, due to feeding it ‘under’ the roller bar, rather than over it. Unfortunately we used a few films in this way before realising, so the first few posts here will show consistent vertical bars in all images.
The negatives have been ‘scanned’ using a lightbox and dSLR camera, shot at 155mm, ISO 100, f22 and at slightly variable shutter speeds; the latter defined by the image brightness.
Furthermore, we shot this particular film at ISO 100, but when negatives were inverted in Photoshop Elements, they appeared somewhat overexposed so contrast and brightness has been altered, (box speed or faster next time!).
Anyhow, here we have some shots from both the Peak and Lake Districts, shot earlier this year on a Rolleiflex T1, on medium format Ilford FP4+ 125, metered by the Rolleiflex, shot at ISO 100 and developed in Perceptol 1:3 for ISO 125, (in accordance with the Massive Dev Chart guidelines):
A/Chromaticity 
It’s a shame that things like ICE don’t work with traditional black & white film, though using a DSLR it wouldn’t matter anyway. Believe it or not, a little nose grease on the non-emulsion side works well for covering up scratches, I did it when printing in the darkroom last year, it might help with digitizing as well.
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Hey Joe, thanks for the tip, I may consider that should the problem arise again, or not be relieved by proper loading! I’ve decided to go down the dSLR scanning route mainly to save the expense of a decent scanner, much cheaper initially, but a future, dedicated macro prime might increase that outlay.
Also, your blog is very informative, thanks!
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